Whatever your personal views regarding the Criminal Code Amendment (Hate Crimes) Bill 2024, the one thing that stood out to me was those most in opposition to it. The LGBTQ community sat alongside the Jewish community in condemning the Bill for not going far enough. Strange bedfellows representing strange times.
It is indeed a fine balancing act between criminalising direct threats of violence towards a group or individual which this Bill has acknowledged, whilst resisting calls to clamp down further on conduct such as inciting hatred, serious contempt, revulsion or severe ridicule which tend to fall under the freedom of speech banner, and remain a much more volatile and tetchy beast.
Whilst minority groups and LGBTQ voices expect fair protection from those who govern, their concerns are real. Abuse and hatred both online and in real life are at all-time highs. Everybody now has an opinion which can reach and affect millions of people instantly; however we must remain vigilant in regards to our freedoms (or loss of ) and the responsibilities which come from those.
As for the Jewish lobbies calling for stricter antisemitism laws it is hard to know where to start. I disagree with their calls for slogans such as ‘From the river to the sea….’ to be criminalised. This feels like a dummy spit resulting from their own conscience. How any nation has the audacity to call for bans on words alone whilst killing their neighbours on a day-to-day basis with rockets and drone attacks defies belief.
Israel has all the tools and resources it needs to be the grown up in this relationship and yet it continues to act like a school yard bully.
Anti war DOES NOT equate to anti semitism.
Grow up and become part of the solution.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
